I will never forget the season when our family hit a major low. My father was unable to pay rent as he was retired at the time, and did not have any meaningful source of income. We moved from the middle-class South B neighborhood where I had spent my early childhood to a one-roomed house in the heart of Kariobangi, in Nairobi’s Eastlands area.

In my young eyes, and in comparison, to where we had come from, I found Kariobangi overwhelming. Nevertheless, living in Kariobangi built tenacity within me and strengthened my capacity to face the dark seasons of life. It helped me to resonate with and develop empathy for people who were trying to rise from the trenches of life.

My life journey had exposed me to the ghetto, the upper-eastern side and the middle-class. The dynamics of these diverse settings were different.

For a person in the ghetto, their survival instinct is greatly enhanced by the harsh circumstances. For the middle and upper class, they will have the advantage of exposure, and for the aspiring lower middle class, they will have a knack for balancing between aspiration and making the most of limited resources.

Where were you born? What kind of environment was it?

Where did you later move to? What kind of environment was it?

What did you learn from every territory you have been to?

When God exposes you to different territories and its people, understand that you are simply there to spy on the land and to catch a glimpse of the territory. You just never know when and where the information or the knowledge will come in handy. Learn. Take it all in.

Safari Njema!